where is my coolant going???

[tybucki]

Ok so I have a 91 eclipse with the 1.8, I know and I'm gonna swap it out as soon as I can, and it's losing coolant. The only problem is I have no idea where. There is no coolant in the oil nor oil in the coolant and there is also no obivious leak anywhere that I can find. If I only take short trips where the car doesn't have time to heat up all the way then it takes a while before I have to replace the coolant but on any trip more than 20 minutes there is enough room to add more coolant to the sytem. Obvioulsy I'm losing coolant when the sytem is pressurized but I don't know how to figure out from where. Please help

 

[darkgant]

Use need to get your hands on a pressure tester... it will help show you if u have a leak anywhere in your coolant lines....question: does your car overheat as your it driving for a mid-to long period of time?? It could be time 2 replace your head gasket

 

[Dhan]

Like said above, there is probably a leak where pressure is escaping, which is allowing the boiling point to lower and you're boiling off the coolant.

Is your radiator cap expired? Are all your hoses in good order? These are the easy ones. When I was dealing with my DSM and overheating, it would boil out of the overflow.

May sound silly, but are you positive the coolant levels are where they're supposed to be? May just be a stuck thermostat.

 

[DSM1G90]

Some areas to look into after my 1.8 also overheated: Flush out the system, including flushing out the radiator by taking off both hoses and flush, flush that radiator out. Then take out the T-stat and flush out that block til all of the rust is gone.

Put in a new 195* t-stat with the wiggle valve facing towards the firewall and a new 13lb cap. Replace the hoses to the radiator and put in 50/50 green mix in the radiator to the top and fill the bottle to the full line. Also, that recovery hose from bottle to neck of water intake housing HAS to be on tight so the vacuum action from neck to bottle functions normally.

You could have a leaking WP where your coolant is going out past the pump shaft.. which means it's definitely time for a belt job. ... and I've been there and done that too.

Good luck - DSM

 

[tybucki]

Ok I THOUROUGHLY flushed the system and replaced the cap today. I got one of the flush and fill kits from prestone so the flush water was coming from behind the t-stat back towards the radiator and it ran clear almost immediately. When I left work tonight I checked and my overflow tank was empty and I was able to add some water to the radiator as well. I decided to run the heater at high since I threw a bottle of radiator stop leak in after I flushed and when I got home, less than a 15 mintue drive, my car was creepin towards overheating and the air coming from the heater was cool when it should have been hot. I got out and checked the hoses and overflow tank and the hoses were firm and hot and the tank was full to almost overflowing. I'm thinking that all this points to possibly a jammed thermostat or bad water pump or possibly both. After I topped off the coolant when I still had the hood open I opened the TB by hand and when it revved a piece off the inner section of my alternator belt tore off so that makes me wonder if it is a leak by the WP. Any more suggestions before I go to the parts store tomorrow and start buying more stuff? My plan is to start with the t-stat replacement and then move on to the WP if that doesn't help.

P.S. I live in Anchorage AK so my coolant/water mix is 60/40 not 50/50 and if I had a leaking head gasket I'd be seing coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant

 

[FugitivE]

Try the T-stat that's pretty much all you can do before the pressure test and bigger jobs like water pump, etc. The o rings on the water pipe from the water pump to the t-stat housing like to leak. Might be a good idea to replace those if the t-stat doesn't help. But a pressure test is probably your best route to determine your problem.

 

[DSM1G90]

(..I still call it a WP then ....), oh, you didn't change out the T-stat (for they will stick closed, or mainly open after age is on them...do you know how to do the test - throw the T-stat in a pot of boiling water to see if the thing opens or stays shut..?) even though you did get a new cap? ..just a bid odd there..for one usually do both - cap and T-stat .

 

[obsidian]

Don't feel the need to get rid of that 1.8 Those engines are tanks and are pretty reliable when taken care of.

I'm not sure where the coolant is going but if you park somewhere dry, then try to stick a big piece of cardboard under the car and see if you find anything in the morning.

If you are magically loosing it and find nothing then you may be burning it or it may only disappear when under a load from a bad hose or something.

 

[tybucki]

When I opened up the T-stat housing the old T-stat was covered in the crap that I used to plug the leak so while changing it obvioulsy was needed it didn't fix my problem. Symptoms that I now believe are related to this problem include: When I turn the heat up all the way and turn the heater fan on I only get hot air for about 15 seconds and then the air cools off. If I turn the heat down again and wait a few minutes and turn it back on I can get the short burst of hot air again. The car overheated again while I was road testing it after the repairs so I pulled the T-stat housing off to check it and the new T-stat was still clean. I poured about 3 quarts of water/coolant back in before it topped off. I left the T-stat out and drove the car back home and had no issues with overheating with no T-stat in it. So I'm looking for somebody who knows enough about cooling systems to help out. I'm thinking there may be a leak somewhere just short of the heater core because there is no leak in the cabin but I lose heat like that. Also thinking it only leaks when it's pressurized becasue I haven't turned the heat on for a while but I'm just not sure.

 

[DSM1G90]

definitely pointing to a WP then .... notice any dripping around the shaft when system is under pressure?

Or, a puddle under the car, or wet around the fanbelt area?

Some more areas to look at..

Don't feel the need to get rid of that 1.8 Those engines are tanks and are pretty reliable when taken care of

That's fure sure! I got one with over 200k miles on it (I did a belt/pump on it last year that had the same probls as OP here is experiencing before I did the full bazooka on it..) uses 1qt per 1100 miles, starts up on a dime and runs super sweet .. just slower than a hog in mud due to having an automatic behind the motor...but, still a good little town car .. so I can leave the Turbo resting at times ...

- DSM

 

[obsidian]

Sounds like you need to do a flush and do a proper repair to your leak. Get that leak sealer out of the system quickly.

 

[tybucki]

Yeah my 1.8 has 283k miles on it and like I said there was nothing on the new T-stat when I popped it open after I started overheating today so I'm pretty sure the leak sealer didnt clog the T-stat so much as the stuck T-stat clogged up the sealer. I'm thinkin of putting the car up on jack stands and just running it and watching under the car and seeing if anything is leaking while its running cause I cant find anything when it's off.

 

[tybucki]

OK so i finally got the car running again after changing out the water pump and the belts, long story don't ask, took it around the block today and when I got back into my carport coolant starting pouring out the overflow tank through the drain hose so I'm thinking there is a clog somewhere in my cooling system now thats preventing proper circulation of the coolant and causing premature overflow does this make sense to anybody?

 

[6bolt4g63]

Hows the radiator cap?

 

[DSM1G90]

283K miles (congrats on the mileage).. !!..

So, have you done a circ test with taking the T-stat out and run it without the T-stat, or at least take the radiator out, take it to a radiator shop and have them boil it out, for if it's the original radiator, it could be majorilly clogged in the cores itself with corrosion.

(Sad thing is that "Stop Leak" plugs up stuff more in good places than in bad places..which aggrevates the problems some..)

Antifreeze is good, but when it get's old, it leaves corrosion due to the breakdown of the glycol then rust begins and that stuff flows everywhere - why one should do a flush about every 3 years to rid of tired coolant.

good luck - DSM

 

[KevD]

To me, this is exhibiting all the signs of a blown head gasket. Sounds like combustion gases are being forced into the cooling system causing the over-pressurization. Chances are the pressurization wasnt an issue until you did that initial flush and now the fault has been magnified. To verify, disable the ignition and remove the rad cap. Have someone turn the engine over while you watch the coolant level. If it rises and falls in co-ordination with one or more cylinders, then its a head gasket.

Although Ive never had it happen to me on the 1.8, I have diagnose this same issue on many other engines.

 

[tybucki]

I changed the head gasket sunday but I'm not 100% sure that the entire problem is the head gasket yet because for whatever reason the car wont turn over now. The old gasket was blown in about a half dozen places though so at least I know that it did need to be changed now I just have to figure out what I did thats keeping the car from running now.